Syl's Story
by Lexie Jayne
Summary: Syl remembers her childhood and the Escape.


Mr Titanic owns the characters. I'm just really bored.  
  
  
  
I remember everything Krit and I have been through. It's kind of weird how things went - everything in my life was weird.  
  
When we were at Manticore, life was tough. I guess * that's* the understatement of the year. Max was the youngest, then me, then Jondy, then Krit. Actually, Jondy and I were the same age, separated only by 13 hours.   
  
Zack used to pair Brin and I together or Jace and I together. Brin was too rough and I often ended up in the infirmary. Jace didn't like me, so she hurt me more. Finally, Tinga and Zane ganged up on Zack and I got paired up with Krit. We ran our perimeter laps together, we did our drills together and we swam our laps together.  
  
I remember one game of escape and evade. One team was Krit, Zane, Tinga and I, the other was Brin, Jace, Julius and Pip. The others were watching. We were armed with paintball guns and flags. Two paint marks and you were dead.  
  
I crept along the fence line, holding my gun by my side - Brin and Jace had no aim with these sort of guns and I was quick on my feet.  
  
I crouched in the brush, hoping that no one will notice me before I find my team mates. Lydecker would've killed me for *hoping *.  
  
Suddenly, I'm ripped out of the bushes by…Juls. He doesn't like me much, either. But he beats me up for it. He pushes me against the wire and tied me up. Didn't I mention the new rules? Prisoners were bound up. Apparently, this was where I was remaining. "Stay there and don't even breathe loudly, X5-701," he spat, snatching my gun from the ground. Oh, shit! Lydecker's number one rule was never give up your weapon for any reason. I was so dead.  
  
I jerked against the wire fencing and Juls recoiled. A loose bit of wire ripped open my forearm.  
  
"Told you to stay still," he hit me hard. I winced and pulled back. *C'mon Krit! * I thought. *You know how much Juls hates me. *  
  
Juls stormed off and that's the last I saw of anyone for hours. I tried to pull away, but Juls had used chains and my wrists cut into them. My arm was still bleeding. Night came like a dreaded nightmare - Lydecker would not leave me here unless this was punishment for loosing my weapon. Ben always said at night Manticore let the Nomalies out to hunt.  
  
I stood awake all night, until a felt someone slap me. Lydecker.  
  
"X5-701, I expect you've worked out that this is your punishment for abandoning your weapon to the enemy?" he demanded. My brothers and sisters were all watching.  
  
"I will remind you again, X5-701, that in Escape and Evade you never beat anyone - enemy or not. X5-894 has reported you beating him before he bound you to this fence. Never again, understand?"  
  
"Sir, yes Sir," I croaked, as he undid the chains.  
  
Juls stood there, a faded bruise marring his cheek. I sprung away from the fence the minute I was free and lined up next to Krit.  
  
"Report back to base for free time," Lydecker bellowed. We march back to the base - we can swim laps, or do target practice or practice hand to hand combat or clean the base. I need bandages for my arm and wrists. Krit and I hurry to the infirmary and I was bandaged quickly - the nurses don't like us soldiers. We decided that swimming laps in our pool was more fun than live ordinance drills.  
  
When our Minder left us for Break, we began playing games - who could lie flat on their stomach in the water without coming up for air for the longest. Max and Tinga always won.   
  
Krit and I dragged our cots together like a double bed and slept like that. He protected me. Eva protected Max, Juls protected Brin and Jace. Zane just did as he was told.  
  
The night of the escape. Jondy and Zack thought Max cut it close - you *have * to be kidding. Eva opened fire in the facility and Lydecker shot her. Zack yelled out and a bunch of my brothers and sisters began running. I stood there, mouth open.  
  
The Krit turned back and yelled, "Come on, Syl!"  
  
I honestly don't know what possessed me at that second - I leapt out of the window and stumbled towards Krit. We ran to the perimeter together. I saw Max under the ice and shrieked - the dogs heard me and Krit dragged me down the hill and we backtracked around the facility and over the other fence.  
  
I landed in a snowdrift and struggled out. My gown was wet through and my skin was turning blue.  
  
"We need to put as much space between us as possible," Krit whispered, pulling me into the forest. "We need a major city in a couple of days."  
  
We ran through the forest and slept on rocks. We ended up in some backward little town, stole some clothes and cash, ate and split up. Nothing broke my heart as to watch Krit walk away from me. I can remember the whole thing - me in my 'borrowed' red skirt and jumper, him in some jeans and a bright blue shirt. I remember crying my eyes out and not knowing or understanding what the wetness on my cheeks were. I was nine and a half.  
  
So, I ventured to Chicago and lived in dark, rather gross alley ways until I was eleven. was still dressed in the red skirt and jumper - which were getting a bit small by then. The only way I ever got a bath was when it rained. I ate what I could steal from local markets - cakes, jams, breads, sandwiches and all manners of left over junk food.  
  
Zack found me when I was eleven - shoulder length dark blonde knotted hair and a dirty face. He handed me a sum of money, a backpack and a gun, with instructions to head to Los Angeles.  
  
You will never understand the happiness I felt when I found Krit - purely by chance. He was now attending school and lived with a kind couple who had adopted him soon after we escaped.  
  
I found him at school, surrounded by friends and tossing a football. I stood there, wiping the smudges of my face with the corner of my jumper. Three guys and two girls accompanied him. One of the boys pushed the ball out of Krit's hands and it bounced in front of me. I bent over to pick it up and the girls began talking.  
  
"Post Pulse beggar."  
  
"Post Pulse orphan."  
  
I looked up and handed Krit the ball. "X5-701 reporting as instructed," I said quietly.  
  
Krit made a raspy noise and wrapped me in the biggest bear hug. All his friends began asking questions - I don't think Krit made a habit of hugging dirty girls outside his school - but Krit just hugged me.  
  
"Guys, this Syl," he said proudly.   
  
They all gawked at me. Krit dragged me to his home and told me he'd get me some clothes while I showered and cleaned up - his adopted parents wouldn't be home until after seven.  
  
I ate them out of house and home that day - entire pizzas, cake, sandwiches and cereal.   
  
"You can stay here with me, Syl, and we can both go to school. I'll look after you," Krit promised, as I braided my hair.  
  
"Sounds like fun," I said wistfully.  
  
Then his adoptive parents - Jill and Sam - came home with Chinese take out and listened to Krit's - Chris's - story about me, Sal. They allowed me to stay in their home as long as I understood I'' have to go to school. We ate the take out and then Jill sent us upstairs to watch television.  
  
We were playing Monopoly when it started. Several quiet cracks echoed the small house and both Krit and I froze. We stood at the top of the stairs - a bunch of soldiers were going through the house. We both jumped to the same conclusion.  
  
"They followed me," I whispered.  
  
"Or Sam was being tracked - he's a doctor and he gets my Trytophan," Krit whispered. "Down the kitchen stairs, out the door and run."  
  
So, we crept down the stairs, across the kitchen and out the door. The door slammed as we ran, both of us leaping the fences and running.  
  
We got split up - I left for New York a couple of weeks later. We found out that Jill and Sam Hill had been forging sector passes for people - a crime with a death sentence.   
  
I ran to New York, where I lived in abandon rail yards until I turned fourteen and could get work cleaning a bar. I got paid a little.  
  
Finally, when I was sixteen, I got a proper job - working in a café. The owner taught me how to cook, manners, how to sew and all those things your mother should teach you.  
  
I lived above the café. I felt happy and safe - until the café closed down. The owner allowed me to stay there - no one else wanted the crumbling, old fashioned brick building with an orphan living on the second floor.  
  
Krit found me again around that time. He stumbled into my home and tearfully told me of a girlfriend who'd run off. We sat around, eating and talking. Finally we both collapsed in bed.  
  
Now? Krit comes and goes as he pleases. He knows I'll be here, living like this. Against popular opinion, I don't get drunk or go to clubs or anything. I haven't seen Lydecker since the day we escaped. I suppose, to him, I'm a disappointment.  
  
  
  
  
  
'Syl's Story' Copyright Alexandra Bruderlin 


End file.
